oedipus_tex

I also find that Electric Control is smoothest to play on sets that offer a self heal of some kind. Hence why I shipped it with Radiation in my lineup.

Not a bad build. Overall comments: Why Super Jump in the final slot? SJ is normally taken only to unlock other powers in that pool. Super Speed would be a much better option, and you can put the Stealth IO in there for total invisibility against most mobs. Have you thought through your attack chain? You almost certainly don't need Punch and Kick. You'll never be using one or the other. I know Cross Punch does extra damage if you have both, but how often will you use that and does that make it worth the cost? I'm betting not but I'm not 100% sure. Static Field really only needs 1 slot. I figure you are 5-slotting for the extra Recharge, but I bet you could get similar Recharge from a power that really needs slotting. FWIW I dont actually know what Chance to Placate does in this power. Might be worth finding out. I dont find Conductive Aura provides enough Regen to bother slotting it with Healing, considering the poor bonus options in those sets. Would definitely 6-slot Synaptic Overload in order to get the +5 Ranged Defense from the 6th slot. Same as above with Paralyzing Blast. With just those 2 slots you've gained +10 Ranged defense. Your AoE capability is very low with this combo, so I would still pick up Explosive Blast. You can use it fine enough from melee range. Put a +Recharge IO here. Its one of the biggest reasons to go Energy pool. Proc out Jolting Chain, if you decide to keep it. Given all the Recharge you have, Conserve Power is a must grab if only just because its available. Taking it will allow you to cut corners on your other slotting.

As great as Dark Affinity is, one of its key powers will make your character model invisible-ish with glowing eyes, so factor in whether that matters to you. Some people get really upset when their costume is obscured. (On Defender/Corruptor you do not get this power).

I admit I didn't predict either of these two. My dislike of Trick Arrow goes back years. But I can see how these two sets might combine into something interesting. I'd never thought of Poison Trap as a useful power but I can see your point about it being an AoE.

I find it hard to play, but maybe that is just me.

Either one depending on what you want out of it. Illusion/Dark is a strong soloist with a lot of utility for teams. And probably the winner based on raw power. Illusion/Thermal is a very strong support character, more of the classic buff character type who (mostly) stays out of the fight. FWIW these two sets are IMO more evenly matched on Masterminds. People dump on "heals" a lot, but they got a long way on classes with pets. Illusion's pets mostly don't need healing.

For the sake of argument, let's "ship" the powersets with their perfect mates. In the thread below, lets discuss which powersets belong together. There is no polyamory in Paragon City, so each powerset can only be paired off once. Discussion Rules: You must list every primary powerset Each secondary powerset can only be partnered once. (Obviously there are no truly correct answers here, I'm just curious what people would come up with if forced to pick. It gets hard as your start running out of partners to choose, so pair wisely.) I took my stab at pairings and came up with the notes below. Would you do it differently? TEAM OEDIPUS TEX: Earth Control: Partner: Storm Summoning Let's just get this one out of the way. These two sets love each other too much to deny. Earth's low damage and high control is screaming for Tornado honeymoons and Lightning Storm babies. Moving on. Mind Control: Partner: Time Manipulation Time is everything Mind Control is looking for and more. While it is true that Mind/Time may not be the strongest possible pairing for Time, Mind Control itself demands a secondary that is strong to justify it, like a trophy wife. Close Matches: Radiation, Dark Electric Control: Partner: Radiation Electric creates a zone of safety that benefits Radiation's toggles beautifully. Combined with a PBAoE heal to make melee work possible and a PBAoE hold power in Choking Cloud, its clear these two will go far together. Close matches: Storm, Dark, Kinetics, Time Ice Control: Partner: Dark Affinity It's not that Ice Control/Dark Affinity is the most obvious pairing, because it isn't. It's that Ice Control needs a big strong secondary in a way that other primaries do not, because they have self esteem. Luckily, Dark Affinity brings much of what Ice is looking for. With Arctic Air being so high-risk and expensive to run, plus Ice offering such anemic damage, Dark Affinity puts the band aids just where they need to be. Close matches: Storm, Kinetics Plant Control: Partner: Kinetics I'm sure Fire Control will be jealous, but when all is said and done Kinetic's true love is Plant Control. Kinetics just has what plants love. Close matches: Radiation, Dark, Storm Fire Control: Partner: Nature Affinity This one surprised me, considering I recently argued that Nature wasn't a great match for Fire. But here are the facts: - Nature is a great set overall - Fire is a great set overall - Nature and Fire are great together. So while Fire may flirt with Kinetics, Radiation, Dark, and Time, other sets are much more hungry than Fire is Fire has lots of extramartial affairs with other sets, of course. Close Matches: Kinetics, Dark, Radiation, Storm, Time Illusion Control: Partner: Cold Domination So, I actually didn't want this pairing to happen. It just seemed so cliche. I would much rather see Illusion paired with something else, like Traps. But when examining all of the couplings as a whole, Illusion/Cold & Gravity/Traps is better than the reverse world of Illusion/Traps & Gravity/Cold. So Gravity takes Traps, and Illusion is stuck in a loveless suburban marriage with Cold. Close Matches: Traps, Radiation, Dark Gravity Control: Partner: Traps This was hard to call due to the strong affinity between Gravity and Storm. However, other sets need Storm more than Gravity does. That leaves Traps, a set virtually no other primary is drawn to. Gravity/Traps is a unique beast. Close matches: Storm Dark Control: Partner: Thermal Thermal, really? Well, it's not that this is an obvious and amazing pairing, it's that Dark Control is so sleekly designed that it doesn't strictly need much out of a secondary. Dark/Thermal would be a strong support character that is largely unkillable but that also does not excel at damage. Close matches: Time, Radiation, Storm Sets without a match: - Empathy - Poison - Pain - Trick Arrow - Sonic Resonance - Force Field Also, notably, none of the sets I left without a match fall into any sets "close matches." Maybe I should open my mind more. Or maybe these sets just aren't that much of a catch. What do your pairings look like?

By the way, an option you may not have thought of would be a Mastermind. A MM/Brute combo could probably solo most of the game. I'd personally go Something/Thermal Radiation as a MM.

If you're going Controller or Defender you absolutely must have a source of -Regen. to get through the harder AV fights I do not personally know if Time offers enough on its own. Beam Rifle has some -Regen that stacks with it though, which is why I suggested a Time/BR combo.

I have a concept for Street Justice/Dark Armor. What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of rolling either Brute or Scrapper for this combo?

I wouldn't change the powers on Fortunata.

For Mind Control I would start by lowering the recharge time on Mass Confusion from 240 seconds to around 120 - 180 seconds. Longer than Seeds of Confusion or Synaptic Overload but shorter than currrent. The second thing I'd do is fix Total Domination, but that isn't a Mind Control specific thing, its all-control-sets-thing that should have happened when Blaster nukes were lowered in recharge time and made crashless. There are a couple of suggestions floating around about how to do that.

Don't forget Defenders and Corruptors get some of the Mind Control powers in their tertiary pools. Mainly its good for Mass Hypnosis and Dominate (which can be procced out for big damage). Unfortunately World of Confusion is a truly terrible power and not useful as a means of Confusing enemies.

It kind of depends on what you are expecting out of it. Mind Control is just overall not a great set on Controllers IMO. It's still playable, but I still find it performs below where it should, mainly due to long cooldowns on key powers and difficulty establishing AoE Containment. The main thing that sticks out about Mind/Traps is that Force Field Generator provides mezz protection, which means it is one of the few (IMO) builds where the ideal tertiary pool is not the Psi pool in order to grab Indomitable Will. A Mind/Traps could instead take the Energy pool for Power Boost. Note that Force Field Generator can't be power boosted, but Total Domination can. This is useful to Mind trollers because it is the best source of AoE Containment available. Traps also provides the Web Grenade which is worthless on most other builds but valuable to Mind and Illusion Controllers. Also, Caltrops is not that great for other trollers but again shines for those two sets because they lack AoE immobilizes. Telekinesis might actually be useful for Mind/Traps since you can push enemies into your traps. As a Mind/Traps you will want to obtain Stealth (probably with Super Speed + celerity IO). All of this said, my feeling is still that in terms of raw power, you'd be better suited with either Illusion/Traps or Dark/Traps. Both play fairly similarly to Mind/Traps but have extra tricks in their bag that make them easier to work with, IMO. Mind Control is overall in just a weird place... a set with a pretty good Sleep power that encourages soloing, but then the set isn't that great at soloing. You really don't notice how much lift other Control sets get on their endurance bar by having pets until play Mind Control and every fight drags for eternity.

I think Dark Control is basically a better version of Mind Control. Mind Control has potential but its cooldowns are too long for what it is intended to do, and the set never makes up for the loss of a pet. Mass Confuse should be on a much shorter cooldown considering the set gives up a pet to obtain it. It was originally the only AoE confuse in the game (other than Arctic Air) and was designed with a different meta in mind than Plant and Electric, which came later.

A Defender on a 2-member team gets a 20% damage buff, so I would probably consider that as an option for this specific task over either Controller or Corruptor (remember, the Defender also gets superior buff stats in most cases).* Dark Miasma/Beam Rifle would be a pretty good AV slaying companion while maintaining some control abilities and decent (not great) AoE. Plus the nuke is ranged. *EDIT: But I forgot Dark Miasma is not a set that particularly benefits Defender over Corruptor. Take a look at individual powers to see how each fares. Time/BR is another good option. That one almost certainly favors Defender.

Your best bet for this playstyle is an Illusion Controller with Pain, Empathy, or Thermal as your secondary. You'll still not be doing pure healing, but you also won't need to do much blasting. Your illusion army can tank and you can confuse enemies into doing your bidding.

I've been able to solo more than a few Elite Bosses with an Electric Dominator by flooring their endurance. Power Sink helps a lot.

/Psi is a fairly popular secondary. Take a look at some of the builds out there. I posted an Elec/Psi build a few days ago. Earth is a pretty standard control set in terms of slotting options. You should be able to slot most of it similar to Fire Control.

Yep Mind gets kind of messed over by Containment, which is sad, because it was intended to be one of the blast-ier sets. A possible solution mentioned in the past is to give Mind a mechanic like Gravity's Impact mechanic, that would apply to Confuse/Fear.

It's been years since I played a Mind Controller but as I recall the main purpose of Total Domination was setting Containment. The only other available method of AoE Containment is Mass Hypnosis.

IMO it would be a better power if it lasted longer than 20 to 30 seconds or however long. I usually skip it as is. Most times I would have cast it just confuses team members and they blow long cooldowns on enemies they can't hit, then it drops during the middle of the action when I need it most.

Based on what you listed and your desires, for a total game changer that will transform teams I'd roll Plant/Kinetics.

Put a Force Fedback: Chance for +Recharge in Bonfire. I noticed you don't have any attacks from your tertiary power pool. Is there a reason? Dominators usually benefit a lot from those attacks. They are normally the only good source of ranged AoE. You can usually put x5 Positron's Blast in the AoE power for +Recharge.

I recommend a ranged control set combined with /Fiery Assault. Plant/Fire or Earth/Fire are both strong options that will do well even without IOs.